New Features: Master Order Forms Yield Sales & Purchase Orders

By icicleMarch 22, 2018

Icicle is continuously being updated with new features, most of which are from suggestions contributed by our users, enabling Icicle to do even more for your business.

This installment covers Purchase Orders, Master Order Forms, and Sales Orders, all of which seamlessly integrate into your daily operations. Furthermore, we’ve made it easier to search for past inspections, improved security by tracking visitors, and improved Icicle’s task features.

Sales Orders

When was it released? December 13 2017

What does it do? Icicle can now generate Sales Orders for sales staff to record incoming orders for customers and items (including quantities, costs, discounts, and more). In order to generate the Sales Order, all you have to do is navigate to the list of purchase orders, choose the customer, the order date, and the facility, and the Sales Order is created.

Where did the idea come from? Why stop building when you’re onto a good idea? This one is from our development team.

Master Order Forms

When was it released? February 14, 2018

How does it work? Building upon the Sales Order interface, this feature provides a completely new interface in Icicle. When users enter the new interface, they can see a grid (like a spreadsheet) that displays products at the top and customers down the side. Smart algorithms preselect the 25 most likely customers and products so that they appear automatically. If any are missing, you can easily add a new product or customer who hasn’t ordered in a while.

In each cell of the grid, you simply enter the amount ordered by the customer and an individualized, customer-specific, sales order is generated automatically. Simply by adding numbers into the cells, you can quickly create dozens of sales orders in seconds and you’ll have the daily overview of total sales.

When it comes to shipping, the shipping supervisor can go to the Master Order Form and assign shipments to each of the orders. Once the order is assigned, the picker can select the shipment and all the products for all customers on that shipment are automatically pre-populated in the picking interface.

Where did the idea come from? This major improvement to Icicle is thanks to Ron from Ontario Pride Eggs!

Enhancement to Picking Interface

When was it released? Febrauary 21 2018

What does it do? Master Order Forms and Sales Orders led to a natural enhancement to our Picking Interface, which was launched in December. Users can now select shipments from the picking interface and then all the products scheduled for shipment are shown, broken down by lot code, in colored squares. Pickers just have to double-click on the coloured squares to move inventory from the warehouse to the truck. Not only that, but the selection of available inventory that they see is presented in FIFO (first in, first out) order by default, maximizing your stock life and minimizing losses due to spoilage.

Where did the idea come from? Thanks to Chris from Ontario Pride Eggs for this one!

Purchase Orders

When was it released? January 2 2018

What does it do? Purchase Orders work just like Sales Orders except that they are recording orders required from suppliers instead of orders placed by customers. These will soon be integrated with receiving so that when a receiver receives a product, they can see what should be included in the shipment from the supplier (and whether they have over-received, received the wrong product, or under-received). Then the receiver will be able to double-click the ordered items to add the times to shipping record and the “paperwork” is done. This enhancement is next up on our roadmap but you can generate Purchase Orders today.

Where did the idea come from? Thanks to long-time Icicle user Paul from P&S Frozen Foods!

Enhanced Alert Notifications

When was it released? January 29 2018

What does it do? Building upon Icicle’s Tasks infrastructure, Icicle users can now see task agings (current, 30 days, 60 days, etc.). We’ve also enhanced this part of Icicle so that you can also see corrective actions in addition to tasks. Previously, you could only see alerts for schedule tasks and recurring tasks. Now you can get a history of all outstanding tasks and corrective actions for you and the personnel you supervise via email. If you subscribe to this notification, you can get that email every day and stay totally on top of your operations.

Where did the idea come from? This one is the result of a great brainstorm within Icicle’s development team.

Visitor Access Control

When was it released? March 14 2018

What does it do? Every so often we get a feature simply because Icicle creator and software architect Steven Burton gets tired of doing something manually. One of these features is Visitor Access Control, which responds to a requirement that facilities track and record visitors.

With this new feature, you can have your visitors sign in through a web interface and, as you type, the system’s smart algorithm will search for and suggest contacts who have previously visited the facility. As the visitor’s name is suggested, users can select suggested users to automatically fill out the visitor access control form.

You can then print a customized name tag with your logo and the visitor’s name, Visitor Id, their company, the person they’re visiting and the date. This replaces the tiresome and inconvenient method of handing out tags that are hard to keep track of and often get lost.

On the way out, visitors can then select an icon to sign out and the time is automatically recorded. If they leave without signing out, an admin can do it for them easily – and for a large group all at once. Furthermore, Icicle will shortly be able to send an alert notification if a visitor who has been banned attempts to accessing the building.

Where did this idea come from? Like we said, Steve just got tired of filling out this form! That’s the beauty of automation.

Enhanced Inspection Searching and Sorting

When was it released? December 26 2017

What does it do? Searching through inspection records can be cumbersome, but it’s often necessary when it comes to audit time. Icicle now allows users to have greater flexibility with their inspection records. Now you can use search and sort features to find the inspections, inspection type, facility, date range, and/or inspector you are looking for.

Where did the idea come from? This was a request from Barbara from the Chai Company!